I feel it would be pointless to discuss the communiqué aired following the Arab National Conference which rejected Prince Abdullah’s initiative calling for full withdrawal by the Israelis in exchange for peace and diplomatic recognition of the Jewish state. The rejection is only because the conference has no weight at all as far as decision-making is concerned. This same body is famous for its annual communiqués which always call for war and nothing but war. Let it be noted that those who make the calls for war are meeting and making decisions while sitting in comfortable swivel chairs in air-conditioned halls. What is even worse is that those who are lukewarm about Prince Abdullah’s initiative did not even criticize Qaddafi’s idea to merge Palestine and Israel into one nation! I wonder also where these same heroes were when Qaddafi also called for the abolition of the Arab League since it has achieved so little and is such a useless entity.

It is clear that these warring individuals are afraid of Qaddafi. This is evident because they went so far as to describe his speech as a “phenomenon”! In fact, they are employed by those Arab organizations that oppose all solutions but have nothing to offer in return except impossible and unreasonable solutions. At the same time, Qaddafi has given ample space to discussing Prince Abdullah’s initiative in depth. He says that the Arabs will not accept a unified state containing both the Palestinians and the Israelis. In fact, there is a small group of Palestinians who support the idea of joining the Israeli state with full administration power over all of Palestine — and not the Palestine of 1967. As this group is so small, it has failed to convince many Palestinians and Arabs because most of them reject in principle the idea of abolishing a Palestinian state. Secondly, the Jews who abandoned their lives and homes in New York, Vienna and other cities to come to the state of Israel reject the idea as well.

All parties involved are, therefore, obliged to deal with the fact that there should be a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital with the Palestinian borders of 1967. In addition, if the Israelis are unwilling to give up the land without a price, the Arabs should pay the price through political relations for ending the occupation. It is clear that it is impossible that any party has an alternative solution as practical as Prince Abdullah’s. Theoretical or ideal solutions are invariably unattainable dreams with no hope of ever becoming reality. Those who reject all solutions or simply refuse to consider any solution at all are wrong especially if they have nothing to offer. That is why there is a group that supports the continuation of the intifada while their families are in Beirut, Cairo or Khartoum and their children are attending schools in those places. Ironically, this group of heroes calls for struggle but they have never participated in any battle. Further, they insist on supporting the Palestinians but they themselves have never given any aid to the Palestinians. And they also talk about confronting the occupation but never explain how, when or where this confrontation is to take place. It is time for the Arabs to make a distinction between what is possible and what is impossible. I believe that the Palestinians, as well as the Syrians, are the ones who must have the final say when it comes to accepting or rejecting the initiative. This is because those are the two whose lands are occupied; the other nations are no more than fans at a football match. In other words, the Palestinians who are living with the problem every day are the ones to decide — not those Arabs who live lavishly and spend freely at meetings and conferences.